Liquid or center filled gum and other confectionery products are in popular demand today. These products have a hard or solid exterior shell and a soft or liquid center. The outer shell portion can be chewing gum or bubble gum of some type, while the liquid center portion can be a flavored material typically having a syrup-like consistency.
There are numerous mechanisms and systems known today for forming liquid-filled gum and other confectionery products. One of these systems is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,963 to Graff et al. Although many of these known mechanisms and processes operate satisfactorily and produce acceptable results, there are a number of mechanical and processing concerns which need improvement. In particular, there is a need for faster, high volume systems as well as systems which are more efficient, easier to operate, and have fewer mechanical breakdowns.
One of the difficulties in the art of gum manufacturing is the fact that the gum products are tacky and have a tendency to stick or adhere to molds and operating machinery. Thus, it is recognized that gum producing mechanisms need to be operated at low temperatures, such as minus one hundred degrees Fahrenheit (-100.degree. F.). At these low temperatures, however, the costs of operation increase and the operation of machinery becomes more difficult. For example, oils and greases can congeal into non-fluid masses, thereby reducing the lubricating ability of the materials and causing increased friction of moving parts. This also causes additional heat load on the moving parts resulting in less efficient high speed operation.
It is also necessary with some known low-temperature gum forming operations to cool virtually the entire machinery, including all of the rotating parts. This is particularly true with systems which utilize rotating piece-producing drum members wherein the products are in contact with the drum members virtually the entire circumference of the drum. Cooling in these systems is typically done with liquid nitrogen in order to provide the necessary low temperatures. Cooling all parts of the apparatus with liquid nitrogen, however, creates significant additional expense, as well as further mechanical and friction difficulties in the operation of the machinery.